And this blog reaches age 21. I’m planning a light celebration with cake, but the blog is lobbying hard for drinks and a night out. That’s been an ongoing source of tension. I was asked in maybe 2006 how long I expected to keep writing this blog. My answer was that I couldn’t really see a time that I would stop, although I expected that what and how I wrote would evolve over time. That’s been true. My biggest surprise with the blog was that I named it “DennisKennedy.Blog” as a joke that blogs would ever rise to the level of getting a .blog top-level domain. The joke was on me when that in fac ..read more

As an avid reader, for many years I have set the goal of reading 52 books in 52 weeks. It’s ambitious, but reading is a hobby and this exercise helps me keep track of what I’ve read. In 2023, I read 92 books, exceeding my goal by quite a bit. Or, more accurately, I listed 92 books that I read. I don’t list books that might reveal certain things I might (or might not) be working on. In 2022, the total number was 80. I again found that I was starting and abandoning quite a few books. And I’m reading way more audiobooks than ever before – largely a function of convenience and the trickiness of f ..read more

The end of the year is a time of sharing at DennisKennedy.Blog. I have a special set of gifts for readers of the blog to celebrate the end of 2023. Help yourself to one or all of these: Free PDF full version of my book, Successful Innovation Outcomes in Law: A Practical Guide for Law Firms, Law Departments and Other Legal Organizations. Free PDF handout of the materials for my approach to Personal Quarterly Offsites, the single most effective approach to planning and productivity I’ve found and consistently practice. For Generative AI experimenters, my white paper, “Adding a ‘Group Advisory ..read more

Ethical Implications of Generative AI for the Michigan Lawyer: Navigating the Digital Landscape Frequently Asked Questions (December 2023 Version) Dennis Kennedy* Executive Summary How might the evolution of generative AI impact the legal profession in the next 5-10 years? In the rapidly evolving landscape of legal technology, AI has emerged as a powerful tool with transformative potential. This list of Frequently Asked Questions (“FAQ”) is tailored for non-technical lawyers and seeks to demystify the ethical and operational aspects of AI in the legal arena. From understanding the basic defi ..read more

I held my Q3 Personal Quarterly Offsite last week. I developed this technique several years ago and have found it incredibly useful. The premise is that, like a corporate or business retreat or offsite, you can and should set aside a few hours every quarter to focus on your personal goals, developments, and status, and then work on strategies and tactics to move forward. My recent retreat was a mental and strategic decluttering effort and I left it energized, focused, and with a clear path. That is not how I entered. This is the most important exercise I do on a regular basis. I want to get i ..read more

I recently presented to a great audience at the State Bar of Michigan Information Technology Law Section’s Annual conference about AI. I described my presentation as an introduction to AI for not-overly-technical lawyers. And it was a lot of fun. Although I’m now concentrating on speaking a private events, it was great to do a presentation for my local community of lawyers in Michigan. I wanted to share a PDF of my slides from the session and a link to the PDF of my recent white paper on some of my own uses of generative AI tools. I used the term “promptcrafting” in the session as an alternat ..read more

#blogfirst I’m starting to publish regular blog posts from my generative AI experiments in what I now refer to as my “AI Lab.” In this post, I offer for your consideration the output generated by ChatGPT after a series of prompts I tried. I’m now calling what I’m doing “promptcrafting,” because, hey, why not? “Prompt engineering” no longer seems like an accurate term to me. I’ve long been fascinated by scenario planning. This summer, I took a great (and highly recommended) online course from the New School on scenario planning. I’ve been exploring ways that I might get ChatGPT to do the lion ..read more

#Blogfirst Adding a ‘Group Advisory Layer’ to Your Use of Generative AI Tools Through Structured Prompting: Using Personas for Advisory Boards, Task Forces, Mastermind Groups, and Other Collections of Personas to Assist in Evaluations, Assessments, Recommendations, Decision-making, and much more (Including Law-related Examples) A Kennedy Idea Propulsion Laboratory White Paper By Dennis Kennedy September 10, 2023 Download a PDF version Executive Summary Imagine a world where expert advice is at your fingertips, instantly available, tailored just for you. Think of a tool that’s always ready t ..read more

The Michigan State Law Review Forum has published my article titled “Displaying and Evidencing Contract Terms in a Post-Visual Era.” In this article, I explore the challenges that come with the increasing use of non-visual transactions, interfaces, and devices in today’s contracting landscape. I’ve been thinking about these issues from my days at Mastercard and appreciated the opportunity to capture some of my analysis and tentative conclusions in this article, along with some action steps. With technological advancements continuously reshaping how we interact and transact, we must reevaluate ..read more

Would you help me out with a LinkedIn poll I’m currently running? I’ve been told by several people (yes, more than one) that I should share what I’ve been doing with ChatGPT for personal productivity, planning, and innovation, and give some practical tips on those approaches. I’ve been doing a ton of experiments and have found some great uses. These people have noted the potential benefits of my insights on my own practical use of this AI tool to boost personal productivity, streamline planning processes, and ignite innovation in unexpected ways. They believe a live webinar, complete with a li ..read more